diff --git a/hw/microblaze/boot.c b/hw/microblaze/boot.c
index 457a08a2fe..35bfeda7aa 100644
--- a/hw/microblaze/boot.c
+++ b/hw/microblaze/boot.c
@@ -124,7 +124,7 @@ void microblaze_load_kernel(MicroBlazeCPU *cpu, hwaddr ddr_base,
     kernel_cmdline = qemu_opt_get(machine_opts, "append");
     dtb_arg = qemu_opt_get(machine_opts, "dtb");
     /* default to pcbios dtb as passed by machine_init */
-    if (!dtb_arg) {
+    if (!dtb_arg && dtb_filename) {
         filename = qemu_find_file(QEMU_FILE_TYPE_BIOS, dtb_filename);
     }